Flexible Spinal Element With Circumferential Slots
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current spinal stabilization methods, particularly dynamic stabilization devices, face challenges in providing sufficient flexibility and natural movement while maintaining structural support, often leading to implant failure and unnatural stress on adjacent vertebrae due to the use of rigid systems.
Innovation Solution
A flexible spinal stabilization system featuring a spinal element with a serpentine or circumferential slot configuration, allowing for longitudinal, lateral, and torsional flexibility, which can be used for vertebral body replacement or dynamic stabilization, incorporating a hollow tube with slots that provide controlled flexibility and support through attachment to vertebral bodies.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If rigid fixation devices are used for spinal stabilization, then structural support is improved, but flexibility and natural movement are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies this principle by incorporating a flexible rod component with circumferential slots that allow the rod to bend and flex while maintaining structural integrity. The slots create a flexible shell structure that can adapt to natural spinal movement patterns while still providing the necessary structural support for stabilization.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the physical parameters of the rod by introducing circumferential slots at specific locations, which modifies the rod's stiffness and flexibility characteristics. This allows the rod to provide structural support in certain directions while allowing natural movement in others, resolving the contradiction between strength and adaptability.
2Reliability
If rigid fixation devices are used, then stabilization is improved, but stress on adjacent vertebrae increases
Solution Approach 1:
The flexible rod with circumferential slots acts as a compliant structure that can absorb and distribute mechanical stresses more naturally across the spinal segment. This flexibility reduces the transmission of excessive stresses to adjacent vertebrae while maintaining adequate stabilization of the treated segment.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a dynamic stabilization system where the flexible rod can adapt its rigidity based on physiological loading conditions. The circumferential slots allow the rod to flex dynamically during movement, distributing loads more evenly and reducing peak stresses on adjacent vertebrae compared to rigid fixation.
3Adaptability or versatility
If dynamic stabilization devices are used, then flexibility is improved, but structural support is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The flexible rod component with circumferential slots provides a structure that is flexible yet maintains adequate structural support. The slots are positioned and sized to allow necessary flexion while the remaining rod material provides structural integrity, achieving both flexibility and support simultaneously.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent effectively creates a composite structure by combining the flexible rod material with strategically placed circumferential slots. This composite design allows different regions of the rod to have different mechanical properties, providing both flexibility where needed and structural support where required.
Data Source
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AI summary
The invention relates to a flexible spine stabilization and/or vertebral replacement system and having one or more flexible segments within a spinal element. The flexibility is created through the use of at least one circumferential slot formed in the spinal element. One or more fasteners are connected to the distal and proximal attachments and secured to the vertebra. The spinal element can The element can have an elastomeric material in any or all of the following combinations: filling at least one of the at least one slot; at least a portion of the inside core; encompass at least a portion of the exterior diameter. Vertebral replacement is achieved by securing the spinal element to healthy inferior and superior vertebra through use of securing members.